To Smile or Cry
by littlelovegood
Summary: "I don't know what I want Albus! I want to talk to her, okay? I want to tell her I'm sorry! Tell her that I'm an idiot! And tell her that the only reason I done all this was because I am too much of a coward to tell her that I love her, but I can't! I can't deal with the fear that she won't feel the same way." Scorpius is too afraid to tell Rose he loves her. Please R&R, Thanks x


"SCORPIUS HYPERION MALFOY! YOU'D BETTER TAKE FOUR STEPS BACK AND LOWER THE WAND FROM MY FACE BEFORE I SHOVE IT SOMEWHERE EVEN MERLIN WON'T BE ABLE TO RETRIVE IT!"

"Hey, hey. Rose calm down."

"Don't tell me what to do Albus Potter; get _your_ friend and get lost."

"Hey, before about six minutes ago, I was _your_ friend too."

"Yeah you _were,_ that was before you, before you... argh, I hate you Malfoy!"

There is not one single student or teacher who is stupid enough to get in the way of Rose Weasley in a bad mood. This granted, gave her a clear pathway through the crowd of students straight to her dorm room.

"Merlin's balls, what did you do to her Scorpius?"

Albus and Scorpius' discussion was supposed to be private, but since neither of them knew how to control their voice levels, the quiet common room became suspiciously quieter.

"Nothing Al, honest! She just blew up!"

"BLEW UP! I JUST BLEW UP, DID I MALFOY? Do you know what else _blew up?_ The Howler I received from my father that's what, my date also _blew up_ when my 'boyfriend' received and owl from the hero of the wizarding world, warning him to stay away from his daughter_. _And guess what else _blew up_ Malfoy? Our friendship! Do you have any idea what he did to me Al? He owl'ed my dad telling him that I was dating the captain of Ravenclaw's Quidditch team!"

"Is she serious? Did you owl my uncle Ron, Scor?" Albus looked a little shocked and a little confused, which, to be fair, didn't really take much.

"Well, erm, yeah I did, but..."

"What did you say to him?"

"What the bloody hell does it matter what he said, the only thing that matters is why he did it! Why Scorpius? I don't understand, I thought you were my friend!" Rose looked desperate now; she also looked hurt and confused. Rose Weasley was not easily confused.

"Look Rose, the guy was a snake, and besides he was way too old for you. He was practically taking advantage of your naivety."

"Too old for me? He's only two years older than us, like the little tart you were seeing about three weeks ago! And you're hardly one to talk about taking advantage!"

"Exactly, I'm that type of guy Rose, I can see what he's doing!"

"It's not the point Scorpius! I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself, besides I'm intelligent enough not to let some guy take advantage of me!"

"Rose, I'm sorry, but I really don't see what the problem is."

"YOU DON'T SEE THE PROBLEM? SCORPIUS, YOU WENT BEHIND MY BACK AND OWL'ED MY FATHER! HE THEN EMBARRASSED ME AND MY BOYFRIEND INFRONT OF HALF THE SCHOOL. THE ONLY SNAKE HERE IS YOU!"

"I WAS ONLY LOOKING OUT FOR! I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO GET HURT!"

Rose lowered her head slightly and her voice slightly more, "How hurt do you think I feel now? I've lost my boyfriend AND my best friend! Way to look out for me, Scor."

With a final sniffle, she walked away. And all Scorpius could do was watch her leave.

"Urgh, I'm such an idiot!" Scorpius let his face bury into his hands, and sunk back onto the chair he had left when arguing with Rose.

"I could have told you that mate, why'd you do it?"

"Thanks, Al. And you know wh..."

"I want the real reason. If you thought there was something wrong with Peter Patil you would have talked to me or James! And let's be honest you're not hypocritical enough to be serious about Patil being too old for her, so what gives?"

Scorpius raised his head from his hands to look at Albus, who raised his eyebrows in response. Then he sighed, "I just don't want her to get hurt."

"Oh my God, you like her don't you?"

"What are you on about; of course I like her she's my best friend!"

"_*cough* _was_ *cough*"_

"Shut up, Al!"

"No, I mean you fancy her, don't you?"

"No I don't! And don't say fancy, Al, it's cheesy."

"Yes you do. Merlin, how did I not see this before! You're in love with my cousin, aren't you?"

"Oh for Merlin's sake yes. Now for your sake sit down and shut up!"

"You told my uncle Ron about Patil 'cause you were jealous?"

"Yes, bloody hell Albus, shut up!"

"You have to tell her!"

"Tell who, what?"

"Scor, I know you're going through an emotional breakdown, but keep up! You have to tell Rose that you're in love with her."

And for no reason at all, Scorpius fell into a hysterical fit of laughter.

"Merlin, Al. Are you right in the head, did you just see her kill me with her eyes? If I tell her I'm in love with her, she'll kill me with her bare hands!"

"Little melodramatic, Scor, don't you think?"

"I'm going to bed; see you in the morning Albus."

At breakfast the next morning, Scorpius was nowhere to be seen. Albus had checked the dormitories, the common room, the library and the boys' toilets on the third floor, the ones he and Scor had let off muggle stink bombs in the year before. The sneaky little Gryffindor had managed to escape the common room this morning and find a hiding place in the castle, without a single soul seeing him.

"Have you seen him this morning, Al? He wasn't at breakfast," Rose feigned disinterest.

"Him who? You're being vague Rose, 'him' narrows down half of Hogwarts' population," Albus knew who 'him' was, but what was a good breakfast if he didn't wind Rose up a little.

"You know full well who 'he' is, stop playing dumb and answer my question!"

"Are we going to start calling him He-Who-Owled- Your-Father? He's not Voldemort Rose, you can use his name even though you're mad at him, you know. And anyway, why do you care?"

Rose said nothing and just glared at her cousin with a look of promised death. Finally, Scorpius crept into the room before Professor McKinley had the chance to start the lesson.

Instinctively, Rose moved her bag and parchment from the free space beside her to clear the table for Scorpius, who walked past her without a glance. She struggled to hide her confusion, and Albus noticed.

"You didn't seriously expect him to sit with us did you?"

"No. Well, I just thought, I don't know what I expected Albus, I just didn't expect to be ignored entirely!"

"Well you did call him a snake and tell him he wasn't a good friend."

"I know what I said Al," she snapped.

"Miss Weasley, Mr Potter, something you want to share with the class?"

"No Professor," they replied in unison.

"Then I suggest you pay attention!"

The next two weeks continued in the same pattern; Scorpius avoided Rose at all costs, he attended meals late, left the common room early and sat as far away as possible in all of their classes. The more Scorpius avoided Rose, the more frustrated she became.

"I just don't know what to do anymore Albus, I want to tell him I'm sorry for what I said, but I need to know that he's sorry for betraying me like that!"

"You have to talk to him Rose, tell him how you feel."

Rose just stared at her cousin, "Yeah that's a good idea Al," her voice practically dripped with sarcasm.

"What?"

"Have you actually been here for the past two weeks? Have you actually failed to notice Scorpius very obvious and successful attempts to ignore and avoid me? Don't you think that if I could talk to him, I would?"

"I'll talk to him," Albus reassured her as he threw his bag over his shoulder.

Shaking her head Rose muttered to herself as she watched Albus leave the library, "honestly, what goes on inside that boy's head?"

Albus found Scorpius, unsurprisingly, alone on the Quidditch pitch. This is unsurprising because Scorpius Malfoy is quite possible the only student at Hogwarts who is stupid enough to play Quidditch alone, in the rain.

"SCOR!"

"SCORPIUS!"

"SCORPIUS MALFOY, COME DOWN HERE RIGH NOW!"

After spending 7 minutes shouting in the rain, Albus realised that Scorpius couldn't hear him and mounted his broom. He sped towards the three hoops and effectively blocked Scorpius' Quaffle.

"Hey that wasn't a bad save for a Seeker!"

"That was an awful shot for a Chaser!" Albus grinned at his friends scowl.

"But anyway, I didn't come out here, in the pour rain, to insult you on your Quidditch skills."

"Then what did you come out here for?"

"What's up with you and Rose? Why won't you talk to her?"

"She hates me Al, she doesn't want to talk to me, you heard her; she called me a snake and a horrible friend."

"That's because you were," Scorpius glared at him, "but only because she doesn't know why you did it. You have to tell her you're in love with her!"

Scorpius sighed heavily and flew to the ground. After a second, Albus followed suit.

"And what if she doesn't feel the same way Al? What if I ruin the friendship?"

"So what? You'd rather not talk to her and never know?"

"I don't know what I want Albus! I want to talk to her, okay? I want to tell her I'm sorry! Tell her that I'm an idiot! And tell her that the only reason I done all this was because I am too much of a coward to tell her that I love her, but I can't! I can't deal with the fear that she won't feel the same way."

"Fine. Don't tell her you love her, but tell her you're sorry! It's killing her inside that you won't speak to her anymore."

"I don't know what to say to her, or how to act." Scorpius sighed in defeat.

"Just be you," Albus patted Scorpius on the shoulder, picked up his broom and walked back to the castle.

Rose sat on her bed with a book resting in her lap, so involved in her reading that it took her a few seconds to register the tapping on the window. Laying her book on the bed, Rose opened the window and let in a beautiful grey owl. After untying the note attached to her leg, Rose fed the owl some treats, stroked her head and let her fly back through the window.

_Rose,_

_Meet me by the Black Lake, Now!_

_Scor._

"For some reason, I didn't think you'd come," Scorpius smiled sadly at Rose, and patted the grass beside him.

Rose took a deep breath, and they both began to speak that the same time.

"Rose, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have gone behind your back like that, if I had an issue with Patil I should have spoken to you about it first. I don't know why I did it, but I'm sorry! And you're right, I am a horrible friend, and a snake, but ..."

"No Scorpius, I was wrong. You're my best friend; you were just looking out for me. Admittedly you went about it the wrong way but your heart was in the right place. I should never have called you those things; I only said them because I was angry."

"I'm sorry, Rose."

"I'm sorry too, Scor."

"Friends?" Scorpius smiled.

Rose looked up to "we'll always be friends Scor, even when we're not."

Noticing his smile fading at her words, Rose put her hand on his shoulder, "what's wrong Scorpius?"

"Nothing, just a little confused," he shook his head as if trying to shake out a thought.

"Confused about what?"

Scorpius shook his head again and let out a small ironic smile, "It's just I don't know whether to smile because we're friends or cry."

"Why would you cry? What's wrong with that?"

Scorpius looked away from Rose, he looked out to the middle of the black lake and sighed.

"I don't know whether to smile because we're friends," Scorpius continued, twisting his fingers in his lap, "or cry because that's all we'll ever be."

Feeling his cheeks redden, Scorpius focused on his fingers, creating a pattern with their movement. The pattern was only disrupted when Rose put her hand in his and leaned closer to Scorpius, resting her head against his shoulder.

"How do you know that's all we'll ever be Scor, if you've never asked?"

"This is why I did it you know. I was jealous of Patil, it was wrong of me to Owl your father just because I was too much of a coward to tell you! I really am sorry Rose."

"I'm sorry too Scorpius."

"I love you." The words were so quite, Rose wasn't even sure she heard him.

"I love you too," she whispered back. Scorpius turned slightly to kiss the top of Rose's head, and then rested his cheek against her soft hair.

"Hmm, I suppose you're not going to Owl my father about this are?"

Scorpius laughed aloud, "hell, no! He'd kill me."

"I love you Scorpius, really."

"I love you too Rose."

**The end**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise.**

**AN: Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it! Please review and let me know what you think x**


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